Why am I not surprised?

I posted yesterday about the disgusting use of a Mickey Mouse clone to promote hatred and Islamic supremacism on Palestinian television. At the same time, I noted that Palestinian authorities had promised to take the show off the air. Guess what?

A Hamas-run television channel has defied a Palestinian government request to axe a controversial children’s cartoon in which a Mickey Mouse look-alike urges resistance against Israel.

A senior official working for Al Aqsa (Jerusalem) television in the Gaza Strip said that the program – “Tomorrow’s Pioneers” – would air as normal this Friday in defiance of information minister Mustafa Barghouti.

“The program will continue and it will be broadcast tomorrow at 4.00 pm [1300 GMT]. Mustafa Barghouti misunderstood the issue,” said the official on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

The article does point out that the TV station is defying the Information Minister’s orders and, since Minister Barghouti is one of the few relative democrats in the Palestinian government, it can be argued that this is just another example of chaotic PA politics and not government policy.

Don’t kid yourself. The al-Aqsa TV station is owned by Hamas, and Hamas is the senior partner in the government. It holds most of the ministries, including the Prime Minister’s office. If the government were truly shocked and appalled by Farfur the Mouse’s Islamofascist ravings, that program would be off in a wink. Instead, the government can order the program off, the station refuses, and the government then throws up its hands and pleads there’s nothing it can do.